If it is not reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he returned the greeting with a gesture in the obligatory prayer, why are you doing that?

The Shaykh : The second question you want to ask, which you have not asked yet, is: If we do not know that the Messenger (peace be upon him) greeted him in the obligatory prayer and returned the greeting in the obligatory prayer, why are you doing it in the obligatory prayer? Is that not the question?

The questioner : Yes, yes.

The Shaykh : So here, you must take your caution from me, completely.

The questioner : Then we say, connect to the Shaykh.

The Shaykh : There are matters here that prevent us from stopping at the specific incident. Let us assume the specific incident now, setting aside the previous possibility I mentioned to you, which could be in an obligatory prayer or a voluntary prayer, whereas there are other incidents where it is clear that it was in a voluntary prayer, right? Let us assume there is no incident, not even a possibility, that it was in an obligatory prayer, right?

The questioner : Okay.

The Shaykh : It prevents us, first, from specifying that the greeting is only for the one praying a voluntary prayer and returning the greeting from the one praying a voluntary prayer. It prevents us from this, and these are matters including that it is not befitting for us to differentiate between what is permissible in the obligatory prayer and what is permissible in the voluntary prayer except by an explicit text, because the original rule is that both the obligatory and the voluntary are worship, first, and that both of these acts of worship have conditions, pillars, obligatory acts, recommended practices, and desirable acts, except for what is excluded. In that case, we make the exception and say that what is not permissible in the obligatory prayer is permissible in the voluntary prayer. Otherwise, if someone asked you, "Is it obligatory to recite al-Fatihah in the voluntary prayer?" you would say, as I say, we and the evidence: . This is a general text. I want a text, as I say, tailored to our liking, to our limited understanding, and there is a specific text for the voluntary prayer in the voluntary prayer. Of course, we do not have such a text. So when the scholars attach the rulings of voluntary acts to the obligatory ones, not only in prayer, but in all acts of worship, for example, you know in Hajj there is voluntary Hajj and obligatory Hajj. So, do the rulings of the voluntary Hajj differ from the rulings of the obligatory Hajj? The answer is no. What is the evidence? We have nothing except that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) performed Hajj only once in his life, which was obligatory. So, if a Muslim wants to perform the voluntary Hajj, is that allowed? We say yes, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: . So, we know the obligatory one is once in a lifetime. And as you know, when the Messenger (peace be upon him) delivered the sermon and informed them that Allah had made Hajj obligatory upon them, a questioner stood up and said: "Is it every year?" He said: "If I had said yes, it would have become obligatory, but it is only once in a lifetime." In this hadith, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) encourages the Muslim who is able physically and financially, at least, to perform Hajj once every five years. So, is the one who wants to perform the second Hajj allowed to differ from the first Hajj? The answer is no. So, this is answer number one: the one who wants to make an excuse and say, as you said in the past, "Why are you extending it?" These matters came in the rulings of voluntary acts, why are you extending them to the obligatory? Here we say, I have not heard until now that the original rule is that the rulings of the voluntary are like the rulings of the obligatory, except for what is excluded. For example, in the voluntary prayer, you may pray sitting, but you get half the reward of the one standing, whereas in the obligatory prayer, it is not permissible except in case of illness, God forbid. Second, we have many, many texts that encourage the Muslim to spread the greeting. , and he (peace be upon him) said: . And so we find that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) applied this general text in every opportunity to spread the greeting, meaning, for example, . This is contrary to what is found in some books of branch jurisprudence, where they excluded and treated the verses of poetry regarding the categories that one does not greet, among which is the one praying, and among which is the one reciting. So, we are now in the case of the one reciting. It is reported that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) entered upon a group reciting the Qur'an, and he said: ; meaning, he compelled them to interrupt their recitation of the Qur'an, which is the speech of Allah, by giving the greeting. And this means that giving the greeting is a very important matter, because it establishes affection and love among Muslims, as you heard in the previous hadith. And for the sake of this generality and that specificity regarding giving the greeting to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), returning the greeting, acknowledging the greeting, and his giving the greeting himself to those reciting the Qur'an, for this whole group, we say that we do not differentiate between voluntary and obligatory, especially since one of the great Imams of the Sunnah and jurisprudence said this, among them Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him).